Troy Franklin — Week 3: One Catch, Twenty-One Yards Late

26 to 23, Rams, two 35 left in the fourth quarter, first and 10 at the Los Angeles 36, one snap after Pat Bryant's 39-yard catch. Bo Nix threw short right to Troy Franklin, eight yards past the line, and Franklin reached the Los Angeles 15, Trent McDuffie on the tackle. +1.6 expected points added — expected points added is what a play was worth given down, distance and field position — and 8.0 points of win probability, the chance of winning the game after the play against before it. Nix scored the winning touchdown from the one with 48 seconds left.

The line: one target, one catch, 21 yards, one first down, 13 of the yards after the catch. Earlier, on Denver's second possession, first and 10 at the Los Angeles 44, Nix went deep middle for Franklin, incomplete, and Emmanuel Forbes was flagged for pass interference, 15 yards to the 29. That snap is not in his line. The drive ended with Wil Lutz's 43-yard field goal off the left upright.

One of Nix's 34 throws; RJ Harvey, Jaylen Waddle and Courtland Sutton had seven each. 21 yards was fourth on the team, behind Sutton, Bryant and Harvey.

Back in June the preview put Franklin on the watchlist: second on the team in targets last season, just under 18 percent of them, then pushed into a fight for the third receiver role by the Waddle trade, with the pecking order and his use near the goal line as the things to watch. Week One was one target. Week Two was two, one of them at the seven. Sunday was one, and it was one of the two long completions that took the winning drive into the red zone. Three games: four targets, two catches, 48 yards. The pecking order has now looked the same three times. Denver is at the 49ers on Sunday the fourth.

_Data via nflverse._